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COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY. 



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By RICHARD S. FIELD, LL.D. 



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COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, 



JUNE 29, 1869, 
By RICHARD S. FIELD. 



PRINCETON : 

PUBLISHED BY STELLE & SMITH. 
1869. 






Whig Hall, June 29TH, 1869. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the American Whig Society be presented to the 

Hon. Richard S. Field, LL.D., for his able and eloquent address delivered this 

morning at the Centennial Celebration of the Society, and that a copy be requested 

for publication. 

f DANIEL WEISEL, 
n . M HUGH L. HODGE, 
Committee^ MARTIN RYERSON, 

[NOAH H. SCHENCK. 



ADDRESS.* 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Whig So- 
ciety : 

We celebrate to-day, the One Hundredth Anniversary 
of the American Whig Society, of the College of New 
Jersey. I cannot but feel that you have done me very 
great honor, in inviting me to address you upon this 
interesting occasion. But the task which you have im- 
posed upon me is not without its embarrassment. For 
the gentleman who has preceded me, and to whose 
narrative we have all listened with so much pleasure, 
has with, I had almost said, such a provoking fulness 
of illustration, gathered up everything of interest in 
your past history, and presented it in so attractive a 
form, that he has left me little if anything to say upon 
that subject, which above all others to-day lies nearest to 
my heart, and which I would gladly have made the 

*Some portions of this Address were, for want of time, omitted in the delivery. 



theme of my discourse. There are, however, one or 
two features of your Society, to which I believe he has 
not adverted, and to which I may be allowed therefore 
for a moment to direct your attention. 

Societies, of a somewhat similar character, exist in 
most if not ail of our American Colleges ; but there 
are circumstances connected with the Literary Societies 
of this Institution, which give to them a peculiar and 
distinctive character ; aud to which I think we are in a 
great measure to ascribe the long continued prosperity 
which they have enjoyed, and the unflagging interest 
which has always been felt in them. In the first place, 
as to their number, there are two, and only two. Had 
there been but one, there would have been wanting, 
that spirit of emulation, that generous rivalry, that 
strenuous struggle for supremacy, which are always 
such powerful incentives to exertion. And to have 
had more than two would have been equally fatal. The 
attention, which is now concentrated by each student 
upon his one loved Society, would in that case have been 
distracted by the conflicting claims of others. He could 
not have felt for it, that deep and absorbing interest 
which it now excites. He could not have given to it, 
that full and undivided affection which he now bestows. 

In the next place, these two Societies came into ex- 
istence almost at the same time, and they date back 
their origin very nearly to that of the College itself. 
In fact it may be said, the College has never existed 
without the Societies. They are thus in a great mea- 



sure identified with it. They are integral parts of it. 
They have grown with its growth, they have strength- 
ened with its strength. When it has languished, they 
have declined. They have shared in its glory, they have 
partaken of its renown. Has there been among the 
sons of Princeton, one, who has distinguished himself 
in Church or State, or in the walks of private life, and 
who has thus reflected honor upon the Institution which 
gave him birth, a portion of that honor may justly be 
claimed by one or the other of these Societies. 

Then, with rare exceptions, every student of the Col- 
lege is a member of one of these Societies, and he can 
be a member of only one. Thus College life becomes 
necessarily blended with Society life. Their ends in- 
deed are one, their aims the same. The studies of the 
College invigorate the exercises of the Halls ; the ex- 
ercises of the Halls give a stimulus to the studies of the 
College. Thus every student has a double motive for 
exertion. He aspires to the honors of the College, not 
merely for his own gratification, but because he feels 
that it will redound to the honor of his Society. What 
would otherwise be a mere selfish ambition, becomes 
in this way a noble and generous impulse. And his 
fellow members, instead 'of envying his superiority, 
take a pride in his distinction. They share in the prize 
which he wins. 

Another feature of these Societies is, that while their 
objects and purposes are known and avowed, a veil of 
secrecy is thrown around their transactions— just enough 



to impart to them an interest and a charm, better felt 
than described, and which serves at the same time as a 
sacred tie of fellowship, a mysterious bond of union. 
Should this, in other respects, be deemed an objection- 
able feature, it is rendered harmless by the fact, that the 
officers of the College are members of the Societies ; 
that they have free access to their meetings ; that their 
presence is not only permitted but invited ; and that 
thus there [is one place, where professors and pupils 
may meet together on a common level, as friends, com- 
panions, and brothers. 

In short, these Societies are little Republics, governed 
by laws of their own making, and the more cheerfully 
obeyed because self-imposed. These laws are not re- 
pugnant to those of the College, but come in aid of 
them. And they not only incite to literary culture, but 
they exercise a wholesome censorship over morals. And 
then too, the intellectual encounters, the mimic contests, 
as it were, that there take place, are a training and a 
preparation, for the more serious and earnest struggles 
which await these youthful champions in the great battle 
of life. 

I cannot but think, that these Societies have done 
much for Princeton College, and that they deserve the 
fostering care of its authorities. The love which the 
alumni of this Institution bear for their alma mater, has 
often been remarked — the interest which they continue 
to take in it through life — the delightful recollections 
which they cherish of the days they have passed here — 



and the pleasure with which they revisit these scenes 
of their youth. Now nothing I believe has contributed 
more to create and keep alive such feelings and asso- 
ciations, than the existence and influence of these So- 
cieties. 

And now, my young friends, having said thrs much of 
your Society, what shall I further propose for your con- 
sideration to-day ? What would be most appropriate to 
the occasion ? Shall it not be the excellency and dignity 
of learning ? The promotion of learning is one of the 
great objects of your Society. But the subject is a large 
one, and I can only present it to you in one of its 
aspects. What I wish chiefly to insist upon is, the obli- 
gations that Christianity is under to learning. I desire 
to press upon you the claims of literature and science, 

not so much for their sake — not so much because 

A 

they are sources of the purest and most rational enjoy- 
ment — not because they are instruments for your ad- 
vancement in the world, and by which you may hope to 
win fame and fortune — but because they are calculated, 
in the highest degree, to promote the cause of pure and 
enlightened religion. This venerable Institution was 
designed by its founders for the advancement of learn- 
ing and piety ; and I wish to show how closely they 
are allied — how intimately they are blended together — 
and how the cultivation of the one has a natural ten- 
dency to the production of the other. 

I am aware, that we sometimes hear language em- 
ployed, from which it might be inferred, that literature 



and science occupied a position, if not of hostility to 
religion, yet at least of a sort of armed neutrality, from 
which religion had quite as much to fear as to hope. 
There are those, who seem to think, that religion is in 
constant danger of incursions from the domain of learn- 
ing, and that science is the foe which she has chiefly to 
dread. Knowledge, it is said, is power, but it is a 
power for evil as well as for good ; learning without 
religion is worse than ignorance ; it is a curse instead 
of a blessing, whether to an individual or to a commu- 
nity ; and with regard to education generally, that un- 
less a people can receive, what is called a religious edu- 
cation, they had better not be educated at all. I do not 
think I state these opinions too strongly. They spring 
no dou^t from an acknowledged truth — which no one 
here at least will question — the paramount importance 
of religion. But they are not on that account the less 
dangerous. The most pernicious errors that have ever 
prevailed, are those which are arrayed in the garb of 
truth. A half truth is the worst kind of falsehood. 

If these opinions are correct, then learning is one of 
those things which is to be received with the greatest 
caution and hesitation ; schools and colleges are danger- 
ous institutions ; and the teacher who aids in the de- 
velopment of the intellectual faculties of a child incurs 
a fearful responsibility. For what security can there be 
beforehand, that those faculties, which are thus called 
into activity, and awakened from their slumber, and 
sharpened and invigorated by exercise, will not be 



9 

wielded by their possessor for purposes of wickedness ? 
It might well be thought safer, that a power, with such 
capacity for evil, should be suffered to lie dormant. 

But in opposition to all such opinions, I insist, that 
learning is a good thing in itself; that knowledge under 
any circumstances is better than ignorance ; that the 
cultivation of science and literature has an elevating, a 
refining, a purifying influence ; that its tendency is, to 
keep in subjection the animal and sensual part of our 
nature, the predominance of which sinks man to a level 
with the brute, and is the most prolific source of vice and 
crime ; and that intellectual education therefore, even 
when deprived of its natural adjunct religious training, 
instead of making one a worse man, is calculated to 
make him a better man — a better member of society — 
a better citizen and patriot — a better husband and 
father. 

But I further insist, that knowledge is friendly to re- 
ligion ; that the best preparation for religious culture, 
is intellectual culture ; that the seeds of religious truth 
can best be sown in the cultivated mind ; that an edu- 
cated man is much more likely to become a religious 
man than one who is not educated ; and, what is more 
particularly to my purpose upon this occrsion, that in 
every age of the world, learning has been the ally and 
the handmaid of true religion. 

What then, I ask, has not learning done for Christi- 
anity ? Under the old dispensation, who was commis- 
sioned to liberate from bondage the chosen race ; to 



IO 

educate them in the wilderness ; to prepare them for 
their entrance into the promised land ? Moses! who 
had enjoyed all the advantages of the most refined cul- 
ture ; who had been educated as the son of Pharoah's 
daughter ; who was learned in all the wisdom of the 
Egyptians. And the wisdom of the Egyptians was at 
that time the wisdom of the world. But Moses was not 
eloquent. He was, "slow of speech, and of a slow 
tongue." Learning and eloquence are not always 
united. True, God could have given him a tongue — - 
could have put words into his mouth. But God works 
by human means and instrumentalities. And therefore 
Aaron was associated with him in his great work. For 
Aaron could speak — he was eloquent. And thus were 
combined, " With Moses' inspiration, Aaron's tongue." 
Who, of all the rulers of Israel, was the man after God's 
own heart ? David ! the sweet psalmist of Israel — of 
whose touching, tender, and sublime effusions, it may 
be truly said, that the devotional raptures of all suc- 
ceeding generations have found no more fitting strains. 
Who was the most prosperous, and the most powerful, 
of all the Jewish kings? — the one to whom was assigned 
the distinguished honor of " building a house to the 
Lord ? " He ! who had asked, not for " long life " nor 
for " riches," but for wisdom and understanding — Solo- 
mon ! the wisest of men — whose " wisdom excelled all 
the wisdom of the Egyptians " — whose proverbs and 
whose songs, have been the wonder and delight of all 
subsequent ages. 



1 1 



And under the new dispensation, who was most 
instrumental in the propagation of Christianity? The 
injunction, "to go into all the world, and preach the gos- 
pel to every creature," was addressed to that little com- 
pany of illiterate fishermen, who clustered around their 
risen master. But they were not the men by whom 
that work was to be accomplished. No ! the great 
apostle of the Gentiles was Paul — Paul, who was born 
and educated at Tarsus, where the Greek language was 
spoken in its utmost purity — who was " brought up at 
the feet of Gamaliel," the most enlightened man in 
Jerusalem, who when Peter and the other apostles were 
arraigned before the Jewish council, had the magna- 
nimity to say, " Refrain from these men and let them 
alone, for if this work be of men, it will come to naught, 
but if it be of God you cannot overthrow it," thereby 
giving an example of toleration, rare in a Jew of that 
age, and worthy of imitation by a christian in any age — 
Paul, a man of the rarest intelligence and the highest 
attainments — who was capable of enriching his dis- 
courses with flowers culled from the poets and dramat- 
ists of Greece, and whose writings exhibit the noblest 
sentiments and the loftiest eloquence, and abound in 
passages, which, for beauty and sublimity have never 
been surpassed. And where did he first proclaim the 
truths of Christianity ? Did he go to the rude tribes of 
Germany and Gaul ? Did he seek to penetrate that 
" northern hive," from which were to issue the future 
conquerors of Rome ? Their primitive manners and 



12 

untutored minds, it might have been thought, would 
have made them peculiarly open to the pure and sim- 
ple doctrines of the gospel. But they were ignorant 
and uneducated. Knowledge, to their eyes, had never 
" unfolded its ample page," and Christianity could make 
no lodgement there. The ground had not been broken 
up, the soil had not been prepared, and Paul might 
plant and Apollos water in vain. No ! he went to the 
cultivated and polished cities of Syria, and Asia Minor, 
and Greece. He went to Tarsus, the place of his 
nativity, distinguished for letters and learning, than 
which no city in the world, not even Athens or x\lexan- 
dria, was at that time more rich in schools of rhetoric 
and science. He went to Antioch, to " Antioch the 
beautiful, the crown of the East," the third city within 
the dominions of the Roman empire, where were col- 
lected the noblest specimens of Grecian art ; and it was 
there that the disciples were first called Christians. 
He went to Corinth, which, although its ancient glory 
had been dimmed, was still a prosperous and populous 
city, the capital of Achaia. He went to Ephesus, the 
chief city of Asia Minor, where was the famous Temple 
of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the world, whose 
altar was adorned with the matchless works of Praxi- 
teles. And he went to Athens ; 

" Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts 
And eloquence, native to famous Avits 
Or hospitable." 

There he disputed daily in the market place. There 
he encountered the Epicureans and Stoics, and " preach- 



ed to them Jesus and the resurrection." There he 
stood on the Acropolis, in the midst of Mars Hill, and 
proclaimed to the men of Athens, that God whom they 
unknowingly worshipped, that life and immortality of 
which their philosophers had only dreamed. 

It was not by miracles that the gospel was to be pro- 
pagated. It made in fact but little progress in Judea, 
where the stupendous miracles wrought in its attesta- 
tion had been performed. Miracles made but little im- 
pression upon the stubborn and unbelieving Jews. They 
ascribed them to infernal agencies. " He casteth out 
devils through Beelzebub the prince of devils." They 
who would not hear Moses and the Prophets, could not 
be persuaded though one rose from the dead. How 
different was the impression made by miracles upon 
the Gentiles. When Paul performed a miracle of heal- 
ing at Lystra, the people cried out with one voice, " The 
Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men," and 
the Priest of Jupiter would have done sacrifice. But 
still, it was not by miracles that the Gentiles were to be 
converted. Paul never appealed to his power of work- 
ing miracles as an evidence of the truth, of what he 
taught. He addressed himself to the reason and un- 
derstanding of his hearers, and 'by arguments which 
they were capable of appreciating, sought to win them 
from their false gods and graven images, to the worship 
of the true and living God, who dwelleth not in temples 
made with hands, and who is the Father of all, remind- 



ing them of what certain of their own poets had said, 
" For we are also his offspring." 

Thus, it was in the chief seats of Grecian learning, 
that the first Christian churches were planted. It was 
where intellectual culture prevailed, where literature 
flourished, where those matchless specimens of art were 
to be found which embodied beauty in its highest forms, 
that the pure precepts, and the simple worship, and the 
sublime doctrines of Christianity, were first received 
and embraced. 

And who were the early Fathers of the Christian 
Church ? Were they unlearned and uneducated men ? 
On the contrary, as Lord Bacon says, " they w T ere ex- 
cellently read and studied in all the learning of the 
heathen ; insomuch, that the edict of the Emperor 
Jidiamts, whereby it was interdicted unto Christians to 
be admitted into schools, lectures, or exercises of learn- 
ing, was esteemed and accounted a more pernicious 
engine and machination against the Christian Faith, 
than were all the sanguinary prosecutions of his pre- 
decessors." Origen, one of the most eminent of the 
early Christian writers, and " the father of biblical criti- 
cism and exegesis," was initiated at an early age into 
Hellenic science and art, and applied himself with great 
zeal to the study of the new philosophy of Plato. Justin 
Martyr, the great apologist of the Christian Church, was 
an ardent student of the philosophy of his age. He 
first attached himself to the school of the Stoics, and 
then to that of the Platomists ; but a desire having been 



i5 

created in his mind for a higher knowledge than Plato 
had reached, he betook himself to the study of the 
Jewish prophets, and through them, to the great Christ- 
ian teacher whom they foretold. Clemens, of Alexan- 
dria, devoted his earlier years to the study of philosophy, 
and when he became a christian, did not cease to be 
a philosopher, but brought his learning and science to 
bear upon the higher questions of religion. Cyprian, 
bishop of Carthage, an illustrious father of the African 
Church, was a distinguished teacher of rhetoric before 
his conversion to Christianity. Chrysostom, the golden- 
mouthed, distinguished for the splendor of his eloquence, 
studied oratory under the celebrated Libanius, a heathen 
rhetorician, distinguished himself at the bar in Antioch, 
and then, devoting himself to philosophy, retired to a 
solitary place in Syria, where he began to study that 
one source of eloquence, to which the human heart re- 
sponded, the Holy Scriptures. Augustine, the greatest 
of the Latin fathers, was first arrested in his career of 
profligacy, " not by the solemn voice of religion, but by 
the gentler remonstrances of pagan literature." He 
learned from a passage in the Hortensius of Cicero, 
the worth and the dignity of intellectual attainments. 
He confesses, that the writings of Plato " enkindled in 
his mind an incredible ardor," first awakened his deeper 
spiritual nature, and led him to the study of the Holy 
Scriptures, whereby he emerged from the gray dawn 
of the Platonic philosophy into the noontide splendor 
of Christianity. 



i6 

It was the literature and civilization of Greece, that 
prepared the world for the reception of Christianity. 
The existence of that literature, is one of the most 
wonderful phenomena in the history of mankind. Noth- 
ing like it had ever appeared before. There had been 
vast and powerful empires, the Egyptian, the Assyrian, 
the Babylonian, the Persian ; there had been populous 
and wealthy cities, Thebes, Nineveh, and Babylon ; but 
not an epic poem, not a historical work, not a dramatic 
composition,* not a forensic discourse, had ever before 
been produced. All these sprung up for the first time 
in Greece, and there attained a degree of perfection, 
which has' never been surpassed, if indeed it has ever 
been equalled. Thus we speak of Homer as the father 
of epic poetry, of Herodotus as the father of history, and 
of /Eschylus as the father of tragedy. To what causes 
are we to ascribe these astonishing results ? To the 
influence, doubtless, of free institutions and popular 
education. Never before, had there been a government, 
of the people, and for the people. Never before, had 
the people been educated. These are the sources to 
which we are to trace all the civilization that existed in 
Greece. The operation of the first of these causes, 
has been the subject of frequent remark. Thus Hume 

*There are, no doubt, to be found in the Old Testament, some instances of 
dramatic dialogue, as, for example, in the Book of Job ; but the existence of the 
drama, properly so called, can not be traced to Hebrew literature. The dramatic 
poetry of the Hindus, only dates back to a time, when there was close and fre- 
quent intercourse between India and Greece. So that it is to Greece alone that 
we must look for the invention of the drama. 



i7 

lays it down as a general proposition, " That it is im- 
possible for the arts and sciences to arise, at first, among- 
any people, unless that people enjoy the blessing of a 
free government." But to the influence of the second 
of these causes, popular education, sufficient import- 
ance has not been attached. It is generally thought, 
that the idea of making the education of the people the 
care of the state, is altogether a modern idea. But I 
think it might be shown, that the ancient Greeks un- 
derstood, quite as well as we, the importance, nay the 
absolute necessity of popular education in a free state. 
Says a distinguished writer upon the language and lite- 
rature of ancient Greece, " Elementary education ap- 
pears to have been universal among the free citizens of 
the Greek States, during the entire Attic period. 
Scarcely an allusion occurs, if indeed an authentic one 
can be found, to an illiterate Hellene. Even the Spar- 
tans, proverbially the least learned of the people of 
Greece, were constrained by the spirit, if not the letter 
of their State discipline, to acquire at least the art of 
reading and writing. . . . Schools and schoolmasters 
accordingly, are represented as in every part of Greece 
an essential element of the social system ; and the in- 
struction, even of the upper classes, was carried on 
much more generally in those schools, than in the mode 
of private tuition. In Athens, and probably in other 
Greek republics, every citizen was under at least a 
moral obligation to provide his sons with a competent 
knowledge of letters." These schools too, so far at 



least as their discipline was concerned, were under the 
control of the state. Of the importance attached by 
the Greeks to the education of youth, we have'a touch- 
ing and beautiful instance related by Plutarch in his 
life of Themistocles. When the people of Athens 
abandoned their city to Xerxes, and took refuge at 
Troezene on the coast of Peloponnesus, the Troezen- 
ians, among other acts of generous hospitality, had a 
decree passed, that schoolmasters should be provided 
at the public expense for the children of their guests. 

Some idea of what was meant by an elementary 
course of education among the Greeks may be gathered 
from the writings of Plato. " As soon," he says, li as a 
boy has acquired, under the care of his parents, his nurse- 
maid, or his psedagogue, a sense of the distinction be- 
tween right and wrong, he is sent to jfeg- school to be 
instructed in reading, writing, music, and orderly habits. 
After he has learnt his alphabet, and is practised in 
reading a continuous text, the schoolmaster selects, as 
his task, from the works of the best poets, such pas- 
sages as inculcate the most approved rules of life, and 
hold up the best examples of virtuous conduct ; which 
lessons he is also made to learn by heart. He is then 
taught music* and the use of the lyre, as the next most 

*" The primitive education at Athens consisted of two branches ; gymnastics, for 
the body, music, for the mind. The word music is not to be judged according to the 
limited signification which it now bears. It comprehended, from the beginning, 
every thing pertaining to the province of the Nine Muses ; not merely learning the use 
of the lyre, or how to bear a part in a chorus ; but also the hearing, learning, and 
repeating, of poetical compositions, as well as the. practice of exact and elegant 
pronunciation ; which latter accomplishment, in a language likejihe Greek, with 



19 

effectual source of mental refinement ; and his voice is 
exercised in singing some of the finest odes of the 
lyric poets, to instil into his mind that sense of har- 
mony, so important in after life both to the orator, and 
the man of the world. Upon this should follow a course 
of athletic exercises in the gymnasium, which finishes 
the education of the boy, and fits him for the higher 
training of the citizen." This higher training was fol- 
lowed up in the Lyceum, and the Academy, by a more 
enlarged course of instruction, comprised under the 
heads of rhetoric and philosophy. Such was the edu- 
cation which Greece provided for her sons.* 

long words, measured syllables, and great diversity of accentuation between one 
word and another, must have been far more difficult to acquire than it is in any 
modern European language. As the range of ideas enlarged, so the words music 
and musical teachers acquired an expanded meaning, so as to comprehend matter 
of instruction at once ampler and more diversified. During the middle of the fifth 
century B. C, at Athens, there came thus to be found, among the musical teach- 
ers, men of the most distinguished abilities and eminence ; masters of all the 
learning and accomplishments of the age, teaching what was known of astronomy, 
geography, and physics, and capable of holding dialectical discussions with their 
pupils, upon all the various problems then afloat among intellectual men." — 
Grote's History of Greece, vol. 8, p. 349. 

*Np view of popular education among the Greeks would be complete, without 
taking into consideration the influence of dramatic exhibitions. After speaking of 
the continuous stream of new tragedy, poured out year after year, Grote proceeds 
to say : " Moreover, what is not less important to notice, .all this abundance found 
its way to the minds of the great body of the citizens, not excepting even the 
poorest. For the theatre is said to have accommodated thirty thousand persons ; 
here again it is unsafe to rely upon numerical accuracy, but we cannot doubt that 
it was sufficiently capacious to give to most of the citizens, poor as well as rich, 

ample opportunity of profiting by these beautiful compositions We 

cannot doubt that the effect of these compositions upon the public sympathies, as 
well as upon the public judgment and intelligence, must have been beneficial and 
moralizing in a high degree. Though the subjects and persons are legendary, the 
relations between them are all human and simple, exalted above the level of 
humanity only in such measure as to present a stronger claim to the hearer's 
admiration or pity. So powerful a body of poetical influence has probably never 



20 

I have spoken only of the literature of Greece. I 
may be reminded, that at the beginning of the Christ- 
ian era, Greece had no longer an independent exist- 
ence, but was a mere province of the Roman Empire. 
But, although Greece had been conquered by the arms 
of Rome, Rome had herself been subdued by the arts 
of Greece. Rome, in fact, can scarcely be said to have 
had a literature of her own. She but imitated, or rather 
translated, the literature of Greece. Thus, it has been 
said, Horace translated Alcaeus, Terence translated 
Menander, Lucretius translated Epicurus, Virgil trans- 
lated Homer, and Cicero translated Demosthenes and 
Plato. The literature therefore of the Roman Empire, 
which at that time comprehended the whole civilized 
world, may without impropriety be called the literature 
of Greece. 

It was then, I say, the language, the literature, the 
philosophy, and the civilization of Greece, which pre- 
pared the world for the reception and diffusion of Christ- 
ianity. In the first place, they dispelled that ignorance 
and barbarity, with which, the prevalence of a pure 
religion would have been simply impossible. The con- 
test which was waged for so many years between Per- 

been brought to act upon the emotions of any other population ; and when we 
consider the extraordinary beauty of these immortal compositions, which first 
stamped tragedy as a separate department of poetiy, and gave to it a dignity never 
since reached, we shall be satisfied that the tastes, the sentiments, and the intel- 
lectual standard, of the Athenian multitude, must have been sensibly improved 
and exalted by such lessons. The reception of such pleasures through the eye 
and the ear, as well as amidst a sympathizing crowd, was a fact of no small im- 
portance in the mental history of Athens." — Vol. 8, pp. 320, 321, 322. 



21 

sia and Greece, was in fact a contest between oriental 
despotism, and Hellenic civilization. When the count- 
less hosts of Xerxes, drawn from all parts of his vast 
dominions, precipitated themselves upon Greece, the 
destinies of the world hung upon the result of the ex- 
pedition. Had Greece been conquered, she would have 
become a mere satrapy of Persia. Her people would 
have been carried into captivity, her cities would have 
been razed to the ground, every vestige of art and 
civilization then existing would have been swept away, 
and mankind plunged back again into ignorance and 
barbarism. Not only however, were the successive 
tides of Persian invasion hurled back, but, by the sub- 
sequent conquests of Alexander, instead of Greece 
being orientalized, Asia was Hellenized. It is this 
which invests the history of ancient Greece, with an 
interest and a grandeur which belong to that of no 
other nation ; and causes it to be studied with an ardor 
and an earnestness, which the lapse of more than two 
thousand years hajS only intensified. What the world 
owes to the heroes of Marathon, of Thermopylae, 
of Salamis, and of Plataea, can be better understood 
and appreciated here, and now, than it ever could have 
been, at any other time, or in any other country. It 
was this marvellous civilization, which had sprung up 
in Greece, which had thus been preserved from ex- 
tinction, and which had gradually diffused itself through- 
out the whole Roman Empire, that paved the way for 
the introduction of Christianity. 



22 

But the learning and philosophy of Greece had pro- 
duced another result, no less favorable to the reception 
of Christianity. It had shaken to its base the whole 
edifice of heathen superstition. It had destroyed all 
faith in the popular religion. " It is marvellous," says 
the Epicurean in Cicero, " that one soothsayer can look 
another in the face without laughing." But man can- 
not exist without religion in some form or other ; and 
it was the void thus created in the human mind, that 
philosophy had sought to fill. That it had failed to do 
so. was no ground for disparagement, or reproach. It 
is easy for those who sit in the full blaze of gospel 
light, to speak lightly of the philosophy of a Socrates 
or a Plato. But, to their honor be it said, they were 
sincere and earnest seekers after truth ; and in their 
speculations had risen to a lofter height than the mind 
of man had ever reached before ; and had discovered 
all that human reason, in its greatest expansion, and 
highest state of cultivation, was capable of discovering 
in matters of religion. Their failure, therefore, had 
only demonstrated the necessity of a revelation. In 
one thing, however, they had succeeded. They had 
dethroned the false gods of heathendom, and thus pre- 
pared the world for the reception of the true God which 
Christianity proclaimed. Thus, the fulness of time had 
come. The mental childhood of the human race had 
passed away, and it had become wearied of its old toys. 

The Greek language too, was a most important in- 
strument in the diffusion of Christianity. It was spoken 



23 

in all the provinces of the Roman Empire. It had be- 
come the language of the civilized world. The Old 
Testament had already been translated into Greek, and 
it is a remarkable fact, that all the writers of the New 
Testament, Jews though they were, made use of the 
Greek language. 

You thus see, how in the providence of God, the 
Greeks were destined to perform as important a part 
in the ushering in of Christianity, as were the Jews. 
They were, certainly, the two most extraordinary races 
that have ever appeared in the history of the world. 
No people, so few in number as were the Jews and the 
Greeks, have ever made so deep and lasting an im- 
pression upon mankind. To the Jews, were committed 
" the lively oracles of God." They were ignorant — 
they were superstitious — they were intolerant. But 
they had been made the depositories of one grand 
truth, the central idea of all religion, the existence of 
one God ; a truth, indeed, which they often forgot, from 
which they frequently lapsed, and which perhaps they 
imperfectly understood ; but which was nevertheless, 
so embodied and enshrined in types and ceremonies, 
that it was safely preserved until the time had come, 
when it was to be developed in a purer and more spirit- 
ual form. The Greeks, on the other hand, had learn- 
ing, had taste, had refinement, had philosophy ; but they 
lacked the knowledge of the one true God. They had 
" gods many, and lords many." To the perfection of 
our nature, it was necessary that these elements should 



24 

be combined; that Jewish theology should be engrafted 
upon Grecian humanity ; and this is what Christianity 
in effect accomplished. 

But not only did the learning of Greece thus pre- 
pare the world for the reception of Christianity, but 
with the decay of that learning came the corruption of 
the Church. And when, during that long night of 
intellectual darkness which enveloped Europe, nearly 
every vestige of ancient learning and civilization was 
effaced, Christianity became well nigh extinct. But 
when the remains of Greek and Roman literature were 
rescued from that tomb to which they had been so long 
consigned, then came a purer Christianity. Yes ! the 
revival of learning was the precursor of the Refor- 
mation. 

And now, who were the great Reformers of Ger- 
many, and France, and England, and Scotland ? They 
were all men of the highest education — bred in the 
most famous universities — the finest scholars of their 
age. Melancthon, with whom I have always associated 
in my mind, the late Joseph Addison Alexander — one 
of the brightest ornaments of Princeton College, and 
of the Whig Society — Melancthon, as you know, was 
a prodigy of learning. At the age of eighteen, he gave 
lectures on the Aristotelian philosophy and the classics. 
At the age of twenty-one, he was professor of the 
Greek language and literature in the University of 
Wittenberg, and students flocked to him from all 
parts of Europe. Luther, was educated at the Uni- 



25 

versity of Erfurt, and was afterwards a professor in the 
University of Wittenberg. Such was the extent of his 
learning, and the impression made by his lectures, that 
the rector of the University is said to have exclaimed, 
" This monk will puzzle our doctors, and bring in a new 
doctrine." Calvin, who, as it has been said, "systema- 
tized the doctrine of Protestantism, and organized its 
ecclesiastical discipline," was educated at Paris, under 
the celebrated Corderius, and became the greatest Latin 
scholar of his day. He was also a student of the Uni- 
versities, both of Orleans and Paris. Cambridge gave 
birth to the great Reformers of England — Cranmer — 
Ridley — and Latimer, the flames of whose martyrdom, 
as he predicted, lighted a candle in England which has 
never been put out. Of the Scotch Reformers, Hamil- 
ton was educated at Paris ; and from St. Andrews went 
forth Buchanan, who wrote Latin poetry " with the 
purity and elegance of an ancient Roman," and as a 
scholar was unrivalled in his age ; and John Knox, 
whom one of the most distinguished of the living histor- 
ians of England has justly denominated, " The Apostle 
of the Reformation," and but for whom not only Scot- 
land, but England too, would in all human probability 
have fallen back into Popery. Such is a very feeble 
and imperfect sketch of the services which learning has 
rendered to religion in every age of the world. It will 
be seen, that religion has advanced or declined, as 
learning has flourished or faded. 



26 

But, it is sometimes said, learning makes a man proud 
— Scientia inflat — and that is a state of mind unfriendly 
to religion. But the want of learning is very apt to 
beget a spiritual pride, quite as unfriendly to religion, 
and quite as offensive in the sight of God, as intellec- 
tual pride. The learning, however, which makes a man 
proud is shallow learning. True science makes a man 
humble. It is when we survey the grandeur, the im- 
mensity, the magnificence of God's creation, that we feel 
our own insignificance. " When I consider thy heavens, 
the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which 
thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful 
of him ? " The higher we ascend the hill of science, 
the loftier the peaks to which we climb, the more bound- 
less is the field of vision, the more countless are the 
objects of knowledge, and the deeper becomes our con- 
viction of how little we know, compared with what is 
to be known. Newton, who " carried the rule and the 
line to the uttermost barriers of creation " — who with 
an energy of mind almost divine, and guided by the 
light of mathematicks purely his own, first discovered 
the motions of the planets, the paths of comets, and 
the causes of the tides — was in the habit of comparing 
himself to a child gathering pebbles on the sea-shore 
while the immense ocean of truth lay unexplored before 
him. And such, no doubt, is the natural effect of all 
that deserves the name of science. The truth is, we 
must come to science as we come to religion, with the 
humility, and the docility of a child. " In regnum na~ 



27 

tiirce, quod fnndatum est in scientiis, sic — ut in regnum 
coeli, nesi forma infantis, intrare non datur." Into the 
kingdom nature, which is founded in the sciences, as 
into the kingdom of Heaven, no one can enter save as 
a little child. 

But again, we frequently hear it said, that learning 
without religion is satanic. I confess, I never have been 
able to see the force or the propriety of such language. 
They who employ it, I am very much inclined to suspect, 
take their ideas of Satan, not so much from the Bible, 
as from Milton. Satan is the hero of Paradise Lost ; 
and in that immortal epic, undoubtedly he is clothed 
with the very highest attributes of intellectual power. 
Nothing can exceed in sublimity, the description there 
given of that grand council, held in "Pandcemonium 
the high capital of Satan and his peers." Their de- 
bates are conducted in a style of eloquence, " above 
all Greek, above all Roman fame." Satan is the cen- 
tral figure — " high above the rest, in shape and gesture 
proudly eminent." Around him are his peers, worthy 
of such a chief — Moloch, " sceptered king," whose 
" trust was with the eternal to be deemed equal in 
strength, and rather than be less cared not to be at all" 
— Belial, whose " tongue dropped manna, and could 
make the worse appear the better reason " — Beelzebub, 
whose " look drew audience and attention," deep 
on whose " front engraven, deliberation sat and public 
care." Why, compared with these, the good angels 
Abdiel, and Michael, and Raphael, are tame and 



28 

spiritless. Compared with these, the gods of Homer 
are a vulgar and ignoble herd. Their only crime 
would appear to have been ambition, " that last infirmity 
q[ noble mind." In their very sports and pastimes 
there is something heroic : 

" Part on the plain or in the air sublime, 
Upon the wing or in swift race contend, 
As at the Olympian games or Pythian fields." 

"Others more mild, 
Retreated in a silent valley, sing 
With notes angelical to many a harp 
Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall 
By doom of battle ; and complain that fate 
Free virtue should inthral to force or chance. 
Their song was partial ; but the harmony, 
Suspended hell, and took with ravishment 
The thronging audience." 

Nay, the themes, in the discussion of which, the 
choicest spirits of hell were in the habit of indulging, 
would seem to have been theological tenets: 

" Others apart sat on a hill retired, 
In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high 
Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, 
Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute." 

Such is the Satan of Milton. It may be pardoned 
on the score of poetic license ; but it lacks the essen- 
tial quality of truth to nature ; and I cannot but esteem 
it a foul blot, upon what would otherwise be, the grand- 
est production of human genius. It has furnished the 
example and the apology, for those monstrous produc- 
tions of modern fiction, in which villainy of the deepest 
dye, is associated with qualities which command our 
respect and admiration. The Lucifer, of Byron's Cain, 
is but the reproduction of Million's Satan ; and only 



2 9 

shocks us the more, because unredeemed by the sub- 
limity of Paradise lost, and because the noble poet 
lacked that sanctity of character which truly belonged 
to Milton. 

How different is the Satan of the Bible ? There, he 
is typified by the most grovelling-, and least erect of all 
God's creatures — the most remote from that image in 
which man was created. There, he is represented as 
the father of lies — the most contemptible, and the most 
detestible of all. imaginable beings. There, he is de- 
scribed as the power of darkness, intellectual as well 
as moral. And when cast out of man, by Him who 
knew them well — their " name was legion" — they 
besought Him, " that they might enter into a herd of 
swine," the appropriate habitation of such " unclean 
spirits." I protest then against the idea of ascribing 
to Satan those high intellectual qualities which Milton 
has attributed to him, or of supposing, that learning 
and science can ever conduce in any way to the ad- 
vancement of his kingdom. His chief project is, and 
ever has been, to keep men in ignorance. I dare say 
we are all tempted by Satan in many ways ; but I doubt 
very much, that he ever tempted a young man to be- 
come a hard student. 

Why has it been said, that " an undevout astronomer 
is mad ? " And why has that sentiment been so uni- 
versally applauded ? Why ! but that the tendency of 
science is to make a man devout ? If this were not so, 
there would be neither truth nor beauty in the send- 



3o 

ment. That distinguished friend of science and re- 
ligion,* one of the last acts of whose well spent life — 
when on a bed of sickness and approaching death — 
was the preparation of a memorial to the Board of 
Trustees, urging the establishment of an Observatory 
in connexion with the College of New Jersey, could 
he, in that solemn hour, have for one moment supposed, 
that the impulse which would thus be given to science 
in one of its highest forms, could have any other possi- 
ble effect than the promotion of the glory of God ? 
Through the munificence of another friendf of science 
and religion, that dying wish of the lamented Van 
Rensselaer has in part been realized. A beautiful 
structure has been reared, a fitting receptacle for that 
great telescope, destined, as we trust, to reveal new 
wonders of science, new glories of the firmament. But, 
if science is not in itself friendly to religion, if know- 
ledge is a power for evil as well as for good, then the 
corner stone of that edifice ought to have been laid with 
fear and trembling, instead of being accompanied, as it 
was, by that grand and glowing address,^ in which 
learning and piety are so beautifully blended — in which 
the sublime imagery of the Bible, that wonderful Book, 
" whose emanations vibrate in exquisite symphony with 
all that is beautiful and grand in nature," is so inter- 

*The late Rev. Cortlandt VanRensselaer, D. D. 

fGen. N. Norris Halsted. 

^Address delivered by Prof. Stephen Alexander, LL. D., at the laying of the 
Corner Store of the Astronomical Observatory of the College of New Jersey, 
June 27, 1866. 



3i 

woven with the magnificent illustrations, furnished by 
the discoveries of modern astronomy, of the truth of 
the annunciation, that " the heavens declare the glory 
of God" — that the eloquent speaker must at least him- 
self have felt, that upon the foundation then laid, was 
to be erected a temple, at once of religion and science, 
where God was to be worshipped, while his heavens 
were explored. But if knowledge is a power for evil, 
what a potent engine of wickedness might not such an 
observatory become, in the hands of an astronomer in- 
deed undevout — pointing his batteries at the skies, and 
" hurling defiance 'gainst the vault of heaven ? " 

Bacon, notices an objection to science made in his 
day ; " that the contemplation of second causes doth 
derogate from our dependence upon God, who is the 
first cause." And the answer which he gives to it is, 
that while a superficial knowledge of philosophy may 
incline the mind of man to atheism, a further proceed- 
ing therein doth bring the mind back again to religion ; 
and as to second causes, if the mind dwell and stay 
there, it may indeed induce some oblivion of the high- 
est cause ; " but where a man passeth on farther, and 
seeth the dependence of causes, and the works of 
providence, then, according to the allegory of the poets, 
he will easily believe, that the highest link of nature's 
chain must needs be tied to the foot of Jupiter's chair." 

No ! depend upon it, religion has nothing to fear 
from learning. Ignorance is her most dangerous foe. 
She can combat learning with its own weapons ; but 



she has no means of coping with ignorance. Science 
and religion will ever be found in harmony with each 
other. Discard forever the idea, that they are incapa- 
ble of reconciliation. There is science falsely so called; 
and there is zeal without knowledge ; and these of 
course can never be reconciled. But never was there 
a jar or a discord between sound science and true re- 
ligion. Never, no never, did science say one thing, and 
religion another. 

If the error which I have been attempting to expose, 
were a speculative error only, it might hardly be worth 
while to refute it. It springs, as I said before, from a 
laudable desire to give to religion the paramount place 
to which it is justly entitled. But, it is very far from 
being a mere speculative error. It has done more to 
prolong the reign of ignorance, to retard the progress 
of education, to quench the light of knowledge, than 
all other causes combined. For ages, it made the Bible 
a sealed book, and thus locked up the most precious 
treasure ever committed to man. It imprisoned learn- 
ing in the cloister of the monk. Its fatal influence is 
still felt. Why is it, that in England, notwithstanding 
the munificence with which she has endowed her higher 
seminaries of learning, notwithstanding her renowned 
Universities, and her great Public Schools, no adequate 
provision has ever been made for the education of her 
people? Just because it has been taken for granted 
that knowledge without religion is a dangerous gift, 
and that unless the people can be educated in what are 



33 

called religious schools, they had better not be educa- 
ted at all. And all this in the name of religion ! " Oh 
gracious God," exclaims Lord Brougham in pleading 
for a system of National Education, " was ever the name 
of thy holy ordinances so impiously profaned before ? 
Was ever before, thy best gift to man — his reason — so 
bewildered by blind bigotry, or savage intolerance, or 
wild fanaticism ; bewildered, so as to curse the very 
light thou hast caused to shine before his steps ; be- 
wildered, so as not to perceive, that any and every re- 
ligion must flourish best in the tutored mind, and that 
by whomsoever instructed in secular things, thy word 
can better be sown in a soil prepared, than in one 
abandoned through neglect to the execrable influence 
of the evil spirit."* 

But, although unwilling to adopt a system of National 
education for herself, England consented to the intro- 

*As a natural result of the want of a system of national education, look at the 
picture of an English peasant of the present day, drawn by one who is himself an 
Englishman ! I quote from a work on " The Social Condition and Education of 
the People of England," by Joseph Kay, Esq., of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
who was commissioned by the Senate of the University to examine into the social 
condition of the poorer classes. " You cannot address an English peasant, with- 
out being struck with the intellectual darkness which surrounds him. There is 
neither speculation in his eye, nor intelligence in his countenance. His whole 
expression is more that of an animal than of a man. He is wanting too in the 
erect and independent bearing of a man. As a class, our peasants have no amuse- 
ments beyond the indulgence of sense. In nine cases out of ten, recreation is 
associated in their minds with nothing higher than sensuality. About one half of 
our poor can neither read nor write, have never been in any school, and know 
little, or positively nothing, of the doctrines of the Christian religion, of moral 
duties, or of any higher pleasures than beer drinking and spirit drinking, and the 
grossest sensual indulgence. They live precisely like brutes, to gratify, so far as 
their means allow, the appetites of their uncultivated bodies, and then die, to go 
they have never thought, cared, or wondered whither." 



34 

duction of such a system into Ireland. And what has 
been the result ? The schools established in Ireland, 
like those in this country, are secular schools, open to 
pupils of every religious persuasion. It was looked 
upon by many at the time as a dangerous experiment; 
but it has thus far been crowned with the most signal 
success. It has done more for Ireland, than any measure 
of relief ever devised for that unhappy country. It is 
rapidly vindicating her from the reproach of popular 
ignorance and intellectual darkness. If you doubt the 
correctness of this statement, I can refer you to an 
authority, which I am sure you will not question ; to 
the opinion of one, who has not only seen the practical 
operation of the system, and witnessed its beneficent 
results, but who has been himself one of the chief 
workers in carrying it out; and who, when it was threat- 
ened with destruction some years since, did as much, if 
not more, than any other man to rescue and sustain it ; 
to the honored President of your College, who, although 
he has been with us so short a time, has already estab- 
lished a lasting claim to the gratitude of every friend 
of education in this country by the interest which he 
has manifested in our common schools. Yes ! that 
problem, which for more than two centuries has per- 
plexed the wisest statesmen of England — how to deal 
with Ireland — is likely to receive its solution, in the 
education of the Irish people, and the dis-establishment 
of the Irish Church.. 



35 

From the same source, springs that hostility to public 
schools, which is continually manifesting itself in this 
country, and which, in a neighboring State, already 
threatens the whole system with destruction. There 
is, we know, a church, composed for the most part of 
a foreign element, and which has been swollen by 
the tide of immigration until it has become a power 
in the land, which does not hesitate to proclaim open 
war against our whole system of popular education — a 
system, which, in connexion with the ample provision 
made by our churches for religious instruction, has 
done more to make us what we are, to elevate the 
character of our people, to rescue the masses from 
that degradation which has heretofore been their sad 
doom, and to strengthen and perpetuate our free insti- 
tutions, than all other agencies combined. But the op- 
position which comes from this quarter ought not to 
surprise us. It is the natural result of their ecclesias- 
tical system. Believing what they do, I do not know 
that we can blame them for it. They are at least con- 
sistent. But what shall we say of those, who, while calling 
themselves Protestants, yet sympathize in this hostility 
to common schools ? Why, the common school is the 
child of Protestantism. It is the offspring of the Re- 
formation. Destroy it, and you bury Protestantism in 
the same grave. A pure and enlightened religion, 
never has existed^ and never will exist, among an igno- 
rant and uneducated people. Did time permit, I think 
it would not be difficult to show, that these schools, free 



36 

to all of every sect and creed must necessarily be secu- 
lar schools ; and that the interests both of religion and 
learning are best subserved, by leaving to the State 
the secular education of the people, and to the Church 
their religious education.* 

But my hour is up, and I must bring these remarks 
to a close. In what I have said to you to-day, my young 
friends, I have sought to furnish you with fresh incen- 
tives to the pursuit of learning and science. I have 
sought to deepen your interest in that Society which 
has for its object, the promotion of a taste for litera- 
ture, and a love of knowledge. I have endeavored to 
persuade you that learning was not a foe to religion, 



*A good deal of misapprehension exists with regard to the degree of religious 
instruction given in our common schools. The following is from a very able 
article on Common Schools in the "Princeton Review," for January, 1866. 
" Though little direct religious instruction may be given in the common school, there 
is usually a large cmount of religious influence. A great majority of the teachers of 
our common schools are professing Christians. Very many of them are among our 
most active Sabbath School teachers. Now a truly godly man or woman, at the 
head of a school, though never speaking a word directly on the subject of religion, 
yet by the power of a silent, consistent example, exerts a continual Christian in- 
fluence. In the next place, as a matter of fact, direct religious teaching is not 
entirely excluded from our public schools. The Bible, with very rare exceptions, 
is read daily in all our common schools. It is appealed to as ultimate authority 
in questions of history and morals. It is quoted for illustration in questions of 
taste. It is in many schools a text-book for direct study. In the third place, nine 
out of ten of the children of the week-day school attend the Sabbath School. 
The Sabbath School supplements the instructions of the week-day school. The 
case, therefore, is not that of an education purely intellectual. Moral and re- 
ligious instruction accompanies the instruction in worldly knowledge. The Sab- 
bath School, the Church, and the family, by their combined and ceaseless activi- 
ties, infuse into our course of elementary education, a much larger religious in- 
gredient than a stranger might suppose, who should confine his examination to a 
mere inspection of our common schools, or to the reading of the annual reports 
of our educational boards." 



37 

but that it has ever been its most valuable friend and 
ally. 

And now, my young friends, members of the Ameri- 
can Whig Society, let me exhort you in conclusion to 
be true to your time-honored motto — Litercz, Amicitia, 
Mores — Friendship, Literature, and Virtue — the sweets 
of friendship, the charms of literature, the loveliness of 
virtue. That these may all be yours, is the sincere 
wish of my heart. You will not live to see a return of 
this day ; but you may so live, that when another hun- 
dred years shall have passed away, your names may be 
pointed at, as having shed lustre upon your beloved 
Society, as having reflected honor upon your dear 
Alma Mater, and as having contributed in your day 
and generation to the glory of God and the good of 
your fellow men. 



The foregoing Address may be had of the Publishers, either separate or in 
connection with The Centennial Exercises of the American Whig Society, which 
will be published early in the month of December ensuing. 

Address, STELLE & SMITH, 

P. O. Box 124. Princeton, N. J. 



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